Genes Reveal Answers to Monarch Butterfly Migration

October 6, 2014 7:00 AM

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A genome analysis of 101 monarchs from around the globe also suggests that the granddaddy of Danaus plexxipus may not have come from tropical latitudes, but arose in the U.S. Southwest or northern Mexico.

The results, published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, appear to upend long-held assumptions about the monarch, including how it generates a color pattern evocative of a stained-glass sunrise.